Little Lulu
by Artemis zodiac
Summary: A series of little Lulu one shots
1. The case of the missing cake

I do not own Little Lulu, Tubby or any associate character.

* * *

Little Lulu.

The case of the missing cake.

* * *

…Smack! Smack! Smack!

Smack! Smack!

Smack!

Mrs Moppet's bought her hand down on her sobbing daughters white underwear one final time before gently placing Lulu on the floor before her as the young girl's red dress fall back in to place.

"Now Lulu." She said sternly, as Lulu's hands began to rub her throbbing backside. "I hope that's taught you not to eat cake without permission."

"But mum," The black pony-tailed girl pleaded. "I didn't eat it."

"Oh hogwash, child." Mrs Moppet stood, wearing a yellow shirt and green pants, she toward over her daughter. "There was a piece of cake in the fridge when I left to get some milk from the shop, when I came home it was gone.

"But is wasn't…" She began

"Do I need to give you a lesson on lying as well?"

Lulu gulped and looked down at the pale carpet of the lounge, the last thing she wanted was to be back over her mom's knee. "No ma'am"

"Good girl," Mrs Moppet pattered Lulu's head, "Now run along and behave yourself."

Still rubbing her behind, Lulu slunk out of two-story house she called home, almost tripping on the door-mat on the way. "Why dose mum always accuse me?" She thought to herself in frustration. Her frustration wasn't helped by forgetting that the fence had just been painted and getting her fingers wet or stepping on Alvin's lost truck. "I ate the cake, I didn't eat the cake, it doesn't matter. I still get spanked."

A rational mind would have answered. "Because you misbehave and have a bit of a reputation." However, the mind of a child, even one as inquisitive as Lulu's dose not function with such a level of analysis. All poor Lulu saw was herself being wrongfully punished and the desire to clear her name.

It was this desire that bought her to the blue door a few minutes walk from her house. Even before she could knock the door opened, revealing a large rounded boy her age.

"Hello Lulu." The boy greeted. "I saw you coming through the window." He paused as Lulu gave her bottom another rub. "So what did you get it for this time?"

Lulu sighed, that was Tubby, straight to the point. "There was some cake left over from pudding last night and mother told me not to eat it unless she said I could."

"And did you?" Tubby questioned.

"Of course not!" Lulu shrieked loud enough to make Tubby's blond hair stand on end. "But she still blamed and spanked me."

"Interesting?" Tubby rubbed his hand against his chin. "A piece of cake stolen from a fridge." A clapped his hands together and smiled. "This looks like a job for the Spider." Lulu grinned in response.

The Spider was Tubby's 'alter-ego' and was used by him to practice his detective skills, which, despite only Lulu using his services to date, where beginning to show signs of improvement.

* * *

10 minutes later at the scene of the crime.

* * *

"Okay." Tubby, now dressed in a raincoat and a cow-boy hat as a disguise, was pacing back and forward across the white and blue tiles of the kitchen as Lulu watched. "To get the cake the culprit would have had to come though the kitchen." He looked at the floor. "No footprints or marks." He looked over to Lulu. "What shelf was the cake on?"

"Top."

"Humm," Tubby looked from Lulu to the fridge and back to Lulu. "Could you stand next to the fridge for a moment?"

"Sure." Lulu answer, glad to be of assistance, and made her way across.

"Aha." Tubby exclaimed once Lulu was in position. "I knew it.

"Knew what?

"We've both scene the fridge open and we both know where the top self is beyond your reach."

"Oh boy." Lulu jumped and clapped with glee.

"You could have pushed a chair or stool over," Tubby continued, "But that would have left a trail of dust and you've to small to pick one up."

"So it wasn't me!" Lulu cheered bouncing again "Yippee."

"Now all that's needed is to find the real cake eater." Tubby reached forward and open the fridge. He froze at what he saw. "What's this box?"

At the bottom of the fridge sat a large carburet box labelled ''. All of the sides where flat except the top, forward edge, which was slightly crumpled.

"Don't know." Lulu answered, unsure why Tubby found it important.

"The cripple on the box appears to have come from someone standing on it." Tubby explained as he bent down for a closer look. "Yes," he confirmed, "See how the crumple is longer on the top the on the front, that's someone's foot and going by the crumple size, someone small and light." He looked up at Lulu and his eyes narrowed.

Lulu looked back annoyed. "Tubby." She warned. "It wasn't me."

"There is a way to find out," Tubby reasoned, straightening back up. "Stand on the box."

"What?"

"Stand on the box." Tubby repeated, steeping back to give Lulu some space. "If you still can't reach the top or the foot-print doesn't match then it wasn't you."

"Fine," Lulu huffed, "if that's what it takes to show you it wasn't me." Taking a deep breath, she climbed onto the box and found herself looking straight at the top self. "Darn." She muttered.

Below her Tubby knelt down and inspected the print. "Your foot matches to." Tubby said from below. He stood up, taking care not to catch his head in Lulu's dress. "By golly," he placed his hands on his hips. "It was you."

Lulu hopped down and glared at her friend. "For the last time Tubby. It. Wasn't. Me."

"If one ignores the stuff that can't happen, whatever still there, even if it has a low chance, must be what happen." Tubby explained. "The cake was from last night, from then to when it was stolen only three people where in the kitchen and knew about it. You, your Ma and Pop. Only you could have left the foot-print so it must have been you."

He pointed at her as Lulu tried and failed to think of another explanation. "You're the cake thief Lulu and you deserved what you got. I can't believe you tried to use my skills to get out of a spanking."

"I've already got spanked, Tubby please," Lulu begged. "It might look like me, but it wasn't me."

"The Spider always gets his man." Tubby stated then paused "…er…girl…er…girl but not in the romantic way…whatever. Case Solve. See ya Lulu." He began to make his way towards the door.

"Tubby wait." Lulu yelled running after him. Tubby ignored her and continued out the door and down the footpath. He reached the road and road and was about to turn down the sidewalk when he stopped, causing Lulu to bump into him and fall over.

"Your fence has been painted." Tubby commented. He reached out and touched it; wet paint stained his finger as it had Lulu's. "Today I guess." He turned around as Lulu scrambled to her feet. "Did you do it?"

Lulu shook her head. "Mother was having me clean and tidy the house, well mainly my room. Pop must have got someone else to do it." Her face suddenly brightened. "You think whoever painted the fence, stole the cake?"

"Well your mum doesn't paint, your Pop's at work." Tubby thought allowed. "So if you didn't do it then your Pop must have asked someone else, any kid would happily do that for money, and the most likely kid he'd ask would be…" He looked to the house next-door "…Alvin."

"That little rascal." Lulu pushed past Tubby and began to storm her way over to the Alvin's house. With Tubby, following Lulu walked up to the door and knocked as hard as she could. "Alvin."

A moment later Alvin, dressed in blue shorts and a red shirt, opened the door. "Hi Lulu, Tubby." He greeted. Alvin was a few years younger than the other two children

"Hi Alvin." Tubby replied. "We just wanted to ask you something."

Alvin look from Tubby to the clearly angered Lulu and answered. "Sure."

"Cool. Did Mr Moppet ask you to paint his fence?"

"Yup," Alvin nodded, smiling. "Paid me five dollars for it to." He looked to Lulu. "Sorry if you wanted to do it."

"Oh that's okay Alvin," Lulu answered. "I just wanted to know if you eat the leftover cake that was in the fridge."

"Yea," Alvin said, but before Lulu could even begin to reach for him added. "Your dad said I could have it when I was done."

Lulu and Tubby froze. "My Pop said you could have it?" Lulu asked shocked by the turn of events "When did he say that?"

"Right before he left for work." Alvin told her still unsure why Lulu looked so annoyed. "Said painting was a hard job and I would need a snack at the end."

"Well that explains everything." Tubby said trying his best not to laugh at the revealed situation. "Thanks Alvin." He added as Alvin went back inside, shutting the door behind him.

"Man, I'm sorry I didn't believe you Lu." Tubby apologised to Lulu. "I guess I should have trusted my friend over the evidence. I'm as bad as your mother."

"Nah, yer not." Lulu answered as the two began to make their way back to Lulu's house. "You know my Mother, she hardly even says sorry for spanking me for something I didn't do. Even if Pop tells her he let Alvin have the cake."

"Well a lest we know," Tubby assured her. "Want to go and play baseball."

Lulu smiled. "Sure."

* * *

Please only review this if you can see anywhere that it can be improved. If you're a critic –rip it to shreds–. Tell me every part that needs work and if you want how to improve it


	2. Air injection

Little Lulu

Air Injection

* * *

Weekends are the best." Lulu thought to herself as she dosed happily in her small bed. "No homework, no school and all the time to sleep and play." Sighing she snuggled into her dark pink blanket and tried to go back to sleep.

The house was quiet, she'd heard her mum go to work ten minutes earlier and from what she could tell, Pop was not around either. No one to bother her, no one to had her chores, no one to tell her what to do. "This weekend has a good feeling." She thought.

As, despite her best efforts continued to wake up she watched a light-beam make its way slowly up her bed. "What should we do today," she wondered. "We could play baseball, or me and () could go an eavesdrop on the boys club house." The sunbeam hit her eyes and she rolled over to avoid it. "Guess I should get up."

Rolling back into the gleaming beam, she reached over and switched on the bedside light, revealing her room. The room had baby blue colored walls and a white ceiling. The floor had a colour but it was currently disguised by a bed of toys, clothes and candy wrappers. Doing her best not to step on any thing she loved Lulu made her way to the door, her white nighty contrasting with her black hair.

In the hall, her feet came to rest on thick red carpet as she made her way towards the bathroom. In her sleepy state, she bumped into the yellow walls and quickly made herself remember what happened the time self knocked over mother's favorite vase.

She reached the bathroom and showered, the crisp water driving away all sleep that was left. The shower, well really a shower bath, took up most of the room, leaving little area left for a toilet and basin on the tailed floor.

Fully washed she hopped out and dried herself, before rapping her towel around her and heading back to her room. She had almost reached it when she heard her Dad talking from downstairs. "Yes," His voice became louder as Lulu approached the stairs. "I'd like to bring her in for an appointment and have her checked out."

Lulu froze. "A visit to the doctor," she whispered, "but I just had one." She'd been to the doctor a month ago and like all her other visits hadn't liked it one bit. She began to make her way down, intent on asking Pop why, but his next words made her stop and her gut froze.

"Yes." He said to the person on the phone. "She needs a new Air injection."

Lulu backed up as fast as she could without tripping. "A needle," she whispered, suddenly afraid, "oh I hate needles." She'd been given a needle by a dentist last year to repair a, no lets not sugar coat it, to repair four fillings. "And according to Gloria," She shivered, "The doctors needle is ten times bigger." She backed into her door and placed a hand on the handle, its shivering making it rattle.

"Yes, Ten should be okay." Her father said from down stairs and Lulu almost fainted.

"Ten needles." She gaped "I'm to get ten. And when's Pop taking me?" Downstairs she heard the phone get hung-up and her Pop make his way up the stairs. "Oh no, he's coming now." As fast, as she could she, open the door to her room and closing it behind her leapt into bed, towel and all and flicked off the light. A moment later, the door open and her father blocked the hallway light.

"Lulu," her father asked, "are you awake?"

"Say nothing," she told herself "pretend to be asleep, maybe he'll go away."

Her Pop stayed still for a full minute before closing the door. Lulu lay frozen for a full minute before finally risking moving. Ever so gently, she raised herself onto her right elbow and listen. No sounds came at first but eventually she began to hear her Pop fiddling with things in the garage.

Hopping out of bed for the second time, she began to get dressed in her short red-dress, while debating what to do next. "If I stay, Pop will try and take me. Even if I tell him I'm not going, he'll just force me and probably spank me while he's at it." Fully dressed Lulu's body gave another shiver. "There's only one way out." She reasoned as she open the curtains. "I'll have to run away." She looked out the window. "I'll hide at Tubby's. He'll keep me secret."

With her dad in the garage, sneaking out of the house was easy. Once on the footpath Lulu moved quickly, checking behind her every few steps to ensure neither her mother nor Pop was following. As she approached Tubby's she began to think of how to handle the first problem 'Tubby's parents.' If they saw her, they'd tell Pop when asked them if they'd seen her, and it would be all over.

The best plan would be to lure Tubby out, explain the situation and have him sneak her in, so the question was, how to get Tubby's attention with out attracting his parents.

She stopped as she approached and hid behind the public letterbox. Through the window, she could see Tubby watching TV and Tubby's mum in the kitchen next door with some shopping. Carefully observing, Lulu waited for her to pick up the next bag and focused on the pantry before darting forward and crouching under the lounge window.

Praying that the TV would drown out the noise to the woman's ears Lulu reached up and knocked on the window.

Nothing.

She tapped again, harder.

Still nothing.

She tapped a third time, as hard as she dared. "Come on you brain dead boy, notice. She was about to knock again, when someone else knocked. Felling dread at the possibility of it being Tubby's mum Lulu rose and was filled with delight to come face to face with Tubby.

"Lulu," Tubby asked confused, "what are you doing."

Lulu quickly put her finger to her lips to silence him, before indicating for him to come outside, a moment later he stood before her, looking both suspicious and confused.

"Look Lu," he warned before she had a chance to explain, "If this is some kind of prank, remember who won the last war and you should know I've thought out some good once since then."

"Tubby." Lulu begged her voice still quivering, 'would you please keep it down." Tubby nodded, now curious what was wrong with his normally brave friend and rival. "I need you to sneak me into your room."

Normally Tubby would have asked her why, but the edge of fear told him that it was important and urgent, so he resolved to ask her later and so simply answered. 'Sure thing." He turned and began to make his way back. "I'll keep Mum's gaze for as long as I can, it should be easy for you to get pasted if you're quiet." He went inside but left the door open.

Lulu held still for a few moments to give Tubby time before creeping slowly towards the door. Once there she ensured the Tubby and his Mum were talking before softly stepping inside and closing the door.

"Was that the door?" The adult asked from the Kitchen and Lulu froze like a rabbit in the spotlight. She could fell her heart pound and her hand on the doorknob become slippery with sweet.

"I must have left it open," Tubby answered, "and the wind must have got it." Lulu tried to make herself move but could not, forcing her to listen.

"How many times have I told you not to leave the door open Thomas?" With his mother's attention now focused on him, Lulu began to tip toe towards the stairs. "Yes many," the women continued, "and I…" Doing her best to ignore her and the trouble she'd got Tubby in Lulu made her way up the stairs, years of going out with out permission having taught her to step on the sides. A few minutes later, she reached Tubby's room.

The room was tidy, due to Tubby being asked to tidy it, so the carpet was a seeable dark blue. The bed was single and covered in a duvet with a picture of a Wild West cowboy. Lulu ignored this, along with the shelves of toys, and made her way to the cupboard. Taking a deep breath and committing herself to tolerate anything, Lulu hoped inside and shut the doors behind her. She curled up in a shivering ball and did her best to ignore the small of…trust me you don't want to know.

It took what felt like forever but finally Tubby opened the door. "Okay," he said as Lulu hoped out. "what is going on?

Lulu gave her legs a stretch to expel the pins and needles before answering. "Pop's taking me to the doctor." She sat down on the bed and continued to stretch.

"The doctor?" Tubby asked, sitting down next to her. "But didn't he take you just the other day."

"Yes," Lulu sighed, "but he wants to take me again. Worse," she continued, "I'm getting a needle, ten of them." As soon as she finished, Tubby shot up and across the room, moving unusually fast for his size. Lulu gave him a confused look. "What?"

"Lulu," Tubby tied to explain, "you have an extra visit to the doctor in which you're getting ten needles, don't you see what that means?"

Lulu thought for a moment, and then it hit her like a ton of ice. "Oh man, I'm sick." Tubby nodded. "But I don't feel sick?"

"Maybe not, but you could still be sick. Why else would you need a full ten?"

Lulu nodded and than an even worse idea hit her. "Tubby, what if this is really bad, I could have infected you." Tubby froze as she bought the possibility to light. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay Lu," Tubby said but still keeping his distance, "You didn't know. What we need to do know is think of what to do."

"I'll have to stay in this room." Lulu reasoned with great reluctance. "You're going to have to as well."

"Or you could go to the doctor and get the shots." Tubby countered. "I'm going to, I'd rather have ten needles than spend my weekend sick."

Lulu shot up and glared at Tubby, mortified by the idea. "I am not, I repeat not, getting a shot."

"Lulu," Tubby tied to reason with her, "this could be very bad."

"I don't care." Lulu answered. "I'm not getting a needle."

"Lu, for…" Whatever Tubby was going to say was cut off by a knock on the door. He turned and looked out the window. "It's your Pop." He said not bothering to turn back to Lulu. She quickly made her way over and looked out, her Pop was standing outside on the step, with their car close by, he was about to knock again when the door open.

"Ah hello Mr. Moppet." Tubby's mum greeted answering the door. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm fine thank you." Her Pop answered. "Listen have you seen Lulu anywhere." Lulu sighed, it hadn't taken him long to come searching.

"No, I haven't" Tubby's Mum answered a little worried. "Is she missing?"

"No." Her Pop answered, "I'm just heading to the shops and wanted to see if she wanted to come and have an ice-cream."

"Yum, ice-cream." Her brain went, but she quickly silenced it. "It's a trick," she told herself, "he's just trying to get me out."

"Lulu," Tubby pressed beside her, "I do think you should go."

"So he's still trying with that." Lulu thought annoyed before saying "Tubby I'm not going that's that."

"You're going to get the shots anyway Lu," Tubby explained, trying his best to stop his friend putting her health in danger. "Once your sick they'll give them to you all the same. At lest this way you'll avoid being sick and avoid the spanking you'd get once you get better."

Lulu sighed and hung her head in defeat, Tubby was right she would only delay things and make them worse. "I guess you're right." She admitted. She began to make her way towards the door. "Thanks for being happy to hide me."

Going down to the front door was not easy, every muscle in her body and a good portion of her brain was fully against the idea of going and getting the shots, but with all the will she could muster she made it step by step down the stairs, to find her dad still standing and talking.

"Ah Lulu," her Pop said as he noticed her, "there you are." Tubby's mum looked around but was not shocked that Lulu was there; it was after all not the first time Lulu had been in the house without her knowledge. Her Pop walked forward and placed a hand on her soldier. "Do you want to go to town for a ice-cream?"

Lulu looked at her dad perplexed. Why was he still doing the treat lure routine, he had a hold of her. Lulu breathed deeply and looked up at the man who toward over her. "It's okay dad," she told him, "I know I'm getting a shot."

Her father's face pause for a moment before matching his daughter's face in prepetition. "Who said anything about a shot Lulu?" He asked. "I'm taking the car to the mechanic for a check-up. While we wait we might as well grab an ice-cream."

"But…but," Lulu stuttered, now completely confused, "you said on the phone that I needed an injection."

Her Pop laughed and kneeling down, gave his daughter a loving hug. "The car needs a new air injection, Lulu." He explained. "You must have misheard." Lulu felt her heart lift as she understood, she'd missed the first part of the call and thus had, while Pop was talking about the car, assume he was talking about her. Giving her another squeeze, her Pop picked her up. "Now, do you still want an ice-cream?" Lulu smiled; once more, the weekend was looking great.


End file.
